Fire alarm and safety device for stables



Mar. 27, 1928.

1,449,954. K. RADOUSH.

FIRE ALARM AND SAFETY DEVICE FOR STABLES.

FILED SEPT. I0, 1921.

25A/@Z121 la Kwan/Jammu STTES Patented KARL RADOUSH, F ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

FIRE ALARM AND SAFETY DEVICE FOR. STABLESM' pplication'led September 10, 1921. Serial No. 499,621.

To all', whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, KARL RAnoUsH, a citizen of the United States, lesiding atl St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of' Minnesota, have invented a new and useful Fire Alarm and Safety Device for Stables, of which .the following is a specication.

My invention relates to devices for saving horses and other animals from stables in l0 case of fire; and the broad object is to provide a stable with automatic means which will open the stable door, release the animals and drive them out, tend to extinguish the fire and also sound an alarm for help, all in an automatic manner. y

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a f'ront elevation off a. barn or stable having a haylott and being equipped with my device.

Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of the stable in 'F ig. 1 with the roof, hayloft and a few other things omitted.

Fig. 3 is a section online 3-3 in Fig. 2 showing more clearly the arrangement of the alarm bell.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4-4 in Fig. 2 with a fragment of the hayloft and barn roof restored.

F ig. 5 is a fragmentary top view of the staple and hasp holding the door sluit.

Referring to the drawing by reference numerals, 1 designates the floor, 2 the walls and 3 the root` of a stable having above it a haylo'ft 4 with door The stable 1 have shown is small and in every way limited to only what is necessary to an understanding of any size stable equipped with my invention no matter what its size may be.

1n Figs. 2 and 4 l have shown along one wail of the stable a series of manger-s 5a separated by partitions 6. In front of each manger is shown a horse 7 or a cow 8, each of which has a strap 9 (see also Fig. 4) fastened about the neck with one end, the other 3b end provided with a ring 10 engaged by the projecting end of a sliding bolt 11, at the point where the latter crosses a notch 12 in the front edge oft' the manger. Fach bolt is slidably mounted in the edge of the manger and has a lateral catch 13 projecting' out of a slot. 14 so it may be operated either by hand or by a lateral finger 15 fixed on a suitably mounted slidable rod 16. Each 'bolt is pushed forward by a compression coil spring 17 in rear of it.

Connected to the front end of rod 16 is a light wire cable 17u which is guided over a sheave 18 and has its outer end passed upwardly and secured to a lever 19, which springs on a pivot 2() fixed in the stable wall. From the swinging end of the lever also ex-k tends a short cord, chain or other strand 21, to the lower end of which is attached a pin 22 (see Fig. 1). r[his pin normally rests in a staple 23, in front of a hasp 24, which is hinged at 25 to the sliding stable door 26.

This door is hung by rollers 27 riding on a rail 28 in the usual manner. The door is normally pulled open by a weight 29 and a guided cable 3() having one end attached to the rear edge of the door as indicated at 31 in Figs. 1 and 2. This weight will act and open the door as soonv as the pin 22 is raised out of the staple 23, because the staple is leaning toward the door so that the slant 23X ot it (see Fig. 5) causes the hasp 24 to escape when the Weight 29 pulls after pin 22 is removed. The weight 29 may be arranged inside the stable but is in the drawing shown as disposed in a housing 29a. The same is true of' the main weight 32 in the inclosure 321 to the right in Figs. 1 and 2.

r1`he weight 32 is suspended from a cable 33 resting on a pulley 34, slidable on a shaft 35. The upper end ot' the cable is secured to and wound on a drum 36, which is fixed on a shaft 37, journaled at 38 in the front wall of the stable and in a frame arm 39.

Fixed upon the front end of shaft 37 is a disk 40 carrying a pin 41, and near the middle of' the shaft is fixed a cog wheel 42 driving a pinion 43 fixed on a lighter shaft 44 on whose rear end is fixed a disk 45 having a circular row of pins 46, one of which (46a) is extra long.

Mounted within the inclosure 32a is a bell 47 the sound of which can be readily heard through apertures 48 in the walls of the inclosure o1' shell which will rather increase the sound.

The bell is sounded by a hammer 49 which has its arm 5() pivoted at 51 and is provided with a cam or tooth 52 (see Fig. 3) operated by the pins 46 of the disk. A spring 53 tends to throw the hammer against the ball. and a lighter spring 54 lifts the hammer from the bell to let the latter vibrate the moment it has been struck, meanwhile the next pin 46 comes along and completes the raising of the hammer for the next stroke.

Pivoted at 55 in an aperture 56 of the adjacent wall or any other suitable point is a lever 57 having a lateral tooth 58 arranged to normally engage the long pin 46 and hold the ringing mechanism. idle andthereby also the drum 36 and disk 40 idle. Lever 57 is held in said position by one end of an easily combustible cord 59, which is slidable in staples, or itomay be sheaves 60, and has its other end secured at 61. The cord 59 is thus arranged and extended into most parts of the space above the cattle so as to be burned by fire started any place in the stable, and should an abnormal heat precede the actual presence of fire in the stable, such heat will melt fuses 59a by which sections of the string are united and whenever said string is severed the lever 57 will be swung so .as -to release the long pin 46a. Such swinging is effected by a cable or a soft wire 62 which extends from the lever 57 over a guide pulley 63 and having a weight 64 suspended from the end passed over the pulley.

The stable is supplied with Water under pressure from a regular water system or from an elevated tank (not shown) lled from a pumping device driven by a wind mill or other motive power (not shown).

The device supplying drinking water to the cattle involving no part of my inven- 'tion I will not describe the means, but will say that in Fig. 1, 65 designates the water supply pipe enteringthe stable under control of a valve 66, which when turned by a downward push of a rod 67 and link 68 admits the water into pipes 69, 70, 71, 72 and 73. The latter two pipes are provided each with a series of apertures 74 from which water will stream as 75 downward into the mangers and upward so as to spread onto the fire, and forward against the animals to drive them from their stalls or places as soon as they have been released.

In Figs. 1 and 2, 76 designates a pig pen within the stable and having its top provided with slits 77 for the water streams 75 to enter. 78 designate the pigs. This pen has two doors 79, 79a hinged at 80 and may be thrown open by springs 81 or other automatic means. The door 7 9a is slightly overlapped by door 79 and the latter is held closed by having a pin 82 engaged by a hook v 83, which is pivoted at 84 and has an arm 85 connected by a wire 86 to a radial arm 87 of a vertical shaft 88, which has another radial arm 89 engaged by a pin, 90 lixed in the slidable rod 16.

In the operation of the device whenever the cord 59 becomes severed either by tire or by heat from an approaching lire, the' weight 64 will cause lever 57 to swing and release the escapement wheel 45. The'shaft 37 being now rotated by the drum 36 and -downward on the top end of rod 67 so as to turn on the water at valve 66. Rod 67 remains down and lever 19 raised until brought back by an operator. Hence the disk is free to rotate with the drum and thus allow the ringing to continue as long as possible.

The moment the lever 19 was raised by pin 41 the cord 21 raised the pin 22 and let the stable door spring open. The lever 19 also pulled at cable 17 and caused rod 16 to slide and release all the rings 9 holding the horses and cows. And the sliding of rod 16 caused the vertical shaft 88'to turn suiiiciently to operate hook 88-85 and the springs 81 opened the doors for pigs, sheep or other small live stock contained in pens. As the water is streaming in upon the animals in directions tending to drive them out of the stable and the large bell 47 is ringing the animals are not only at liberty to escape but are induced to do so. And yet it may be well for the owner to once in a while train the animals by false alarms to get in the habit of hurrying out of the building when the alarm is sounded, about the same as is done in traininghorses for service in a lire department station.

Another and main object of the bell ringing is of course to call people to extinguish the fire.

Vhat I claim is:

1. In an apparat-us of the class described, a slidable door and means tending at all times to open the door, a staple in the adjacent part of the stable wall, a hasp hinged to the door and having a slot to go upon the staple, and a pin inserted in the staple to hold the hasp engaged, said staple being inclined toward the door opening so as to automatically release the hasp when the pin is removed, the door opening means causing the door to slide and thus pull the hasp along the incline of the staple and cause it normally holding the motor in check, and

means which when subjected to a' predetermined degree of heat release the motor.

f In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

KARL RADOUSH. 

